Kegging soda?

I just ordered a 2 keg setup that should hopefully arrive soon. Does soda carb up just the same as beer? The kit I have doesn't have seperate regulators, so if I set the pressure to my serving temp for the beer will they both carb up just fine? Or do sodas require any more pressure?

Soda requires a lot more pressure.... generally 25-30 psi from what I recall.

Not from my experience. I carb the same way, and my ginger ale and root beer are great at 12 PSI. That being said, I have 12' of 3/16" ID tube.

I serve 4 kegs at 12 PSI: IPA, Porter, Oatmeal Stout and Ginger ale.

(check out the soda recipe section, too)

Soda would require more pressure to increase the amount of carbonation.
Lets say on average (ok maybe not exact numbers, but bear with me) that beer has around 2 volumes of CO2, so 2 liters of CO2 for every liter of beer.
Soda on average requires 5-6 liters of CO2. So a greater pressure is required for CO2 absorption.
With increased pressure, requires increased serving pressure to prevent the soda from foaming up before it even reaches your glass. This can be accomplished in several ways.
I keep my soda pressurized to 25 psi @ 45 degrees F, with approximately 25 feet of 1/4 inch ID line for resistance.

some conflicting data there. So if I'm doing a cream soda I should be able to carb it at 12 psi as long as I get a longer serving tube?

no you wouldnt need a longer hose for 12 psi due to the decreased amount of pressure, and you CAN carb at 12 psi. Don't get mis-guided by my previous post. 12 psi will carb it, but it will carbonate to a carbonation level similar to beer, which may be fine for you. A typical soda usually has two-three times more carbonation than beer. To get to that level, more pressure is needed, which in turn increases the risk of foam-in-a-glass. To prevent this, more resistance is needed, which would be to use a longer hose/a thinner hose/a soda-keg-dip-tube-agitator-resistor-thing

Thanks! I have been looking for this! How about force carbonating though? Same as beer like between 30-40 psi?

Unless you are burst-carbonating beer, you shouldn't carbonate it at 30 psi.
Soda does need to be carbonated at a higher pressure, but this can be accomplished by leaving it a serving pressure for 2-4 weeks, or by burst-carbing with a higher pressure.

I keep my beer at 12 psi and my soda at 30 psi all the time. I don't usually change the pressures. In my experience, soda at beer pressure seems a bit flat.

Beer at 10, soda at 25 here.

I've got my beer at 12, Dr Pepper at 35. I seem to recall Coca Cola dictating 40psi or something.

I found that setting my soda at 35 for a few weeks didn't carbonate it well at all... I wound up bringing the cold keg inside, hooking it up to a tank at 35, and rolling it on the floor for a while.

To balance it at the higher pressure, I use a lot more line. I'm at 25' now, I need more. Seriously considering a pressure reducing tap designed for sodas... Cornelius makes them, I think.

to burst carbonate soda what are the recommended steps?

I burst carbonate mine without the initial high pressure.
Typically with burst carbing beer, you set it to 30 psi, shake the hell out of it for a few minutes, then decrease back to serving pressure and let it sit for a few days.
Normally to burst carb soda, I would say to set it to 50 or so psi, shake the hell out of it, then let it sit at serving pressure for a few days to a week.
I set mine to serving pressure and chill it the serving temperature, shake the hell out of it for more than a few minutes (listen to music or watch TV, keg in my lap, rock it back and fourth for a half hour or so), then leaving it set to serving pressure (25 psi at 45 degrees for me) and let it sit for however long it takes to reach full carbonation.

I just set my chilled sodas to serving pressure (35psi), and slowly agitate until the regulator doesn't hiss anymore. Usually it takes about 30 mins of me rolling the keg around with my feet while watching TV.

Maybe it counts as a workout, too?

Keep in mind, soda WILL require more serving line than beer to keep a higher resistance to prevent immediate foaming. My system uses 8 feet of 1/4 inch inside diameter tubing for beer, and 25 feet of 1/4 inch inside diameter tubing for the soda, at 25 psi at 45 degrees. Temperature will make a difference in the amount of carbonation and pressure.

Cool yeah I just added 25 foot of hose to it but now it won't stay on my tower shank and I cannot get it clamped down to where it will not come out of the hose where it connects to the elbow. Pretty upset I cannot find a way to clamp it down.

(all naughty jokes aside) what size is your shank/hose?

beninan said:

(all naughty jokes aside) what size is your shank/hose?

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Tee hee

beninan said:

(all naughty jokes aside) what size is your shank/hose?

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I've got 25' of poly hose from mcmaster. It should be longer. The dr pepper shoots out of the faucet.

My soda is at 35F at 35 psi.

1/4 inch hose really not sure on the shank...I just bought it at a homebrew store. Can I get a shank elbow that has a bigger radius that way itll fit on my hose better?

DoubleFisted said:

1/4 inch hose really not sure on the shank...I just bought it at a homebrew store. Can I get a shank elbow that has a bigger radius that way itll fit on my hose better?

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I think if you're using 1/4" line you'll need it to be even longer- like maybe 50 feet? for soda. My 25 feet on the line is 3/16" line. 1/4" will have less resistance and therefore need way more line.

If I were to guess, I would say you maybe have a 3/16 inch shank? (wow, I feel for you man...)
What type of kegging setup do you have?
I'm assuming by the questions you are asking, that you have actual taps with drilled holes through your fridge. Does your shank (actually, its called a nipple, the shank is the piece that is normally inserted through a hole in the fridge and what the faucet attaches to) detach from the (actual) shank?

The nipples may be available in different sized to accommodate your needs, though, it may be easier to go with smaller line. Maybe use 25 or so feet of 3/16 inch inside diameter line?
My 1/4 inch line fits pretty snug on my nipples (wow....) and I probably don't really need clamps to hold it, but I still use them. I can imagine you would want the same.
I would probably take a ruler, or a micrometer if you have one, and measure the diameter of the nipple before buying more line, just to make sure it's going to fit.

Yooper said:

I think if you're using 1/4" line you'll need it to be even longer- like maybe 50 feet? for soda. My 25 feet on the line is 3/16" line. 1/4" will have less resistance and therefore need way more line.

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I probably should have mentioned it before, but yes, I would go with longer line than 25 feet for 1/4 inch. I do have 25 feet at 1/4 inch inside diameter, but it still dispenses pretty quick, and usually the first pour is quite a bit of foam. If I change it, I probably would go with at least 40 feet, maybe even the 50 feet as Yooper mentioned.

beninan said:

I probably should have mentioned it before, but yes, I would go with longer line than 25 feet for 1/4 inch. I do have 25 feet at 1/4 inch inside diameter, but it still dispenses pretty quick, and usually the first pour is quite a bit of foam. If I change it, I probably would go with at least 40 feet, maybe even the 50 feet as Yooper mentioned.

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I think I will get 3/16 inch line. I have a commercial rated kegerator and added a new hole to my tower and bought a new shank. Can I go to a hardware store to get the new line ? I really don't want to pay for shipping of one item.

DoubleFisted said:

I think I will get 3/16 inch line. I have a commercial rated kegerator and added a new hole to my tower and bought a new shank. Can I go to a hardware store to get the new line ? I really don't want to pay for shipping of one item.

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I've never seen it locally, but I know McMaster Carr has this rigid stuff that I've used for soda that works well! It was $.15 cents a foot, and the shipping was about $6 or so. I bought 50 feet of it. I can't remember which one at the moment, but I know it's posted on the forum.

DoubleFisted said:

I think I will get 3/16 inch line. I have a commercial rated kegerator and added a new hole to my tower and bought a new shank. Can I go to a hardware store to get the new line ? I really don't want to pay for shipping of one item.

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I personally get all of my liquid and air lines from the hardware store and never have a problem. I just clean them first with BLC and then sanitize with iodophor.

Yooper said:

I've never seen it locally, but I know McMaster Carr has this rigid stuff that I've used for soda that works well! It was $.15 cents a foot, and the shipping was about $6 or so. I bought 50 feet of it. I can't remember which one at the moment, but I know it's posted on the forum.

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This is the stuff I got from McMaster-Carr. I wound up cutting it too small, so I need to order more:

5384K691 Moisture-Resistant Polyethylene Vacuum Tubing, 3/16" ID, 5/16" OD, 1/16" Wall, Translucent White, 50' L

It's .34/foot. Im sure there's a cheaper one on there somewhere.